Workshop dates 2016-2017

Here are my new workshop dates of the coming academic year. You can find all details on my website at www.helenhallows.com or click here.

This is me

I am a mixed media artist inspired by the seasons. I find myself in nature.

I run holistic creative workshops to share my processes and offer inspiration for a creative life.

I make painted and collaged art that reflects on how good it is to be alive.

Inspired by eclectic pattern and colour. Blown away by the miracles of life. Made from stardust.

I journal to find my inner voice and I sketch to capture moments of connection to nature.

You can follow my journey on my blog, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Find ways to connect and my prints, products and workshops at www.helenhallows.com

Thanks for joining me. It means everything to have you here!

Days of the Week

I recently enjoyed the series 'What do Artists do all day' on BBC4 and it is a good question! Creativity isn't easily quantified and packaged in to the spaces of the week that I have available to work, namely the school day. And if your job is 9-5 (do they exist anymore?)  the self motivated life of an artist or maker can seem an unfathomable mystery. For myself, I came out of the back end of winter overwhelmed by life and not really in control of what was happening when. The business of being an artist was taking over from the creativity of being an artist, and from the enjoyment of living a simple life.  So I have been trying a new strategy. This is going to sound like 'The Hungry Caterpillar'!.....

On Monday I don't work if I can help it! Dave doesn't work either. It doesn't feel like we don't work.  We deal with the fall out from the weekend, get washing done and go to the allotment and dig the garden and clear out the chooks. We have two plots at the allotment and a 3m x 3m plot in the communal polytunnel. I also decided to dig up some of our flower beds and integrate vegetables with flowers....that's another post!

On Tuesday, I am having a business day. Having moved studio twice in the last year I still have a mountain of paperwork that has no home to go to. Once I start it I quite enjoy sorting and filing it.  I also deal with invoicing on a Tuesday and package up deliveries. I follow up leads for new stockists and eventually I think I will feel like I am running this business!

On Wednesday I have the car so I plan all my gallery drop offs and meetings for a Wednesday.  Recently I have also had some creative time.  I have taken the long way round to appointments and found myself off the beaten track.  I have a bag of art stuff and a sketchbook and have really enjoyed the discipline of getting out there.

sketchbook pages from Creative Wednesdays

On Thursday I am in the studio creating originals. I am currently working towards exhibitions in the Autumn and I am creating new landscape work. Having been knocked off course by the burning desire to capture the inspiration of my garden, I have come full circle back to landscapes and capturing the forces of nature. I have recently struck a deal with a gallery to act as an agent for my prints and so I feel in compartmentalising all my activities I can effectively deal with one at a time.

On Friday I am in the studio again. As well as working on originals for framing, I am also working on some smaller collages playing with structure and colour. And if anyone wants a cuppa I feel I must say 'yes'!

So, the routine doesn't always fit in with the bursts of creativity but by allocating spaces to what needs doing and showing up in the studio I am achieving quite a lot and feeling more content for it.

Back to basics

Creatively I am starting again.  I have had an amazing year for my business and continue to be offered new opportunities and have lots to look forward to in 2013.  With the studio move though I have felt in limbo, and as I've come to be known for the style of landscapes I create I have continued to create them.  But something inside wants me to pursue a new direction.  Really it's a more vivid version of me, hopefully a more confident creator.  When I teach the workshops I love encouraging messiness and creating textures and papers to use which are uninhibited and free.  So, I've been doing what I love, and without a total vision for the work, I have been mark making and experimenting with the media that have become familiar to me, ink, collage and stitch.  I've bled out the colour....see previous post on black....and I am starting out on a new creative journey.  It feels exciting and liberating and a little scary.  I'm waiting for the colour and shape to arrive.